Gramercy has the most hilarious secret area ever

Guess I have to download it then!

All those superhealths that I didn't go down to?

Yeah
I don't know if the author designed it as a trap or completely forgot about it.

A trap, judging by the translator message.

Hellscrag, after you try Zora's Episode 1, you should play Beer from Outer Space. It's pretty good and interesting dispite lack of music! Here are some pics and a video preview I took while playing:










This is what happens when you leave the game without exiting or if you have a whole bunch of mods active






I know this isn't in the map pack its self, but I had to include it since it's so random and it is from the sequel:

It does look interesting, but my objective is to have finally played everything that has been reviewed at USP (excluding, conveniently, everything that gets added with a lower score than I have already reached in my climb up the list, lol!).

Seriously, people have talked here about getting BFOS reviewed for years. I'm not quite sure why it's never happened!

I reviewed it, but it hasn't been put up yet. I think sana said he was gonna work on the site some more before he adds any new reviews to the list.

Zora's Episode One
Site Score: 39%

1. Lost by Zora

This map pack plays like some kind of weird dream. It shares some things in common with WTF Series 1, but here the surrealism is almost taken for granted, making it seems more grounded and natural than in the aforementioned pack.

Crashing down from the sky and through a shaft on the surface of a desert island, the injured player lands in an incredibly long, uniform underground tunnel lit inexplicably by burning torches. There's nobody around.

Before long, the player arrives at a series of identical water cisterns linked by tiny, cramped lifts. With no explanation given at all for the surroundings, there's something quite eerie about just how uniform it all is, as if it's never going to end. However, the groups of Slith prevent the player from getting too lonely...

The final lift deposits the player in an endless underground maze lit dimly by lanterns. The slightly sinister feel continues here, because it's all so unexplained and there's so little combat. The player could wander round in this hugely confusing place for days, only occasionally coming upon a Nali or a larger room as they go, not finding the exit.

When at last the player finds the lifts to the surface, it's a tremendous relief, but the hell isn't over yet... fast reactions are required to negotiate the see-sawing ascension without getting crushed.



Chilling out to some pleasant guitar music while exploring the desolate expanse (actually the best stab at a limitless ocean horizon that I've seen in Unreal), taking down the Brutes that stand contemplating the endless sea, the player could be forgiven for wondering where on earth to go next. The answer lies at the bottom of a mind-bending whirlpool...

2. Skaarj Roulette by Zora

There's more connectivity and continuity between maps in this pack than I expected.

Arriving on the shores of another island, the player must scale the treacherous rockface while being ambushed suddenly by Mantas. Around the rocks of the ocean floor can be found further supplies, but the waters are hostile... I don't think I've been mauled by Biterfish so much in my life!

Beneath the surface of the island lies possibly the strangest Skaarj generator the player will ever see. Tumbling down into its conical depths to avoid being incinerated by the sizzling energy beam, flung around by strange gravitational forces, the player must work his way up spirals and layers of perilous walkways while being plagued by respawning Skaarj. Somewhere at the heart of the generator, guarded by SkaarjOfficers with Eightball Guns, is a heavily concealed switch that will disable the beam and make it safe for the player to proceed to the exit... but it will take quite some finding...





I'm actually quite impressed so far, much more than I expected to be. The build is primitive, but the imagination evident in the concepts and puzzles is greater than I've seen in many of the custom maps I've trawled in this travelogue so far. I await the following maps with interest... including the infamous mine cart ride of doom...

The maze of Skaarj Castle was much more bearable
and much more interesting and less straightforward since you weren't just finding the big exit.

It was still extremely boring, though that was a part of a good map. Can't say the same for this unfortunately.

My reaction was similar to scrags on my first playthrough. The wtf factor as you fall from the sky and land in the dark tunnels was briliant, the maze was hectic, and the surface has that desert island minimalistic charm. One of my favourite zora maps. The first map of series 4 and the last map of series 2 are probably the only other ones that I really rate.

3. The Jungle of Monsters by Zora

Escaping from the Skaarj generator, the player arrives in a mountain valley, where a deserted Nali settlement is overrun with monsters. The player must journey through the village to gain access to the mines, all the while looking out for snipers stationed high up on the cliffs.

After the surreal, imaginative and strangely atmospheric opening maps, this ultra-traditional offering is a disappointment. The lack of the high concept and elaborate scripting evident in the previous maps, combined with a lack of any real attempt at ambient atmosphere, brings the basic build to the fore, and it is found lacking. Flat lighting fails to bring out the best in an undulating but empty area of terrain with repetitive Nali huts, albeit to an original design. Then there's the combat, which all seems to take place within the first of the two main open areas, leaving only a few "pest" creatures to stand in the player's way as he progresses to the next stage of his journey.

Better than the worst of the maps I've visited on this Travelogue, but Zora has already shown him/herself (?) to be capable of much more.



4. The Forgotten Caves of the Nali's Crystals by Zora

I did it! I beat the infamous mine cart map! Well, more or less...

Entering an ageing mine, the player finds himself in the control room of a complicated network of subterranean railway lines. Many hazards await in the tunnels and caves of the mine, parts of which are home to vile creatures, but somewhere, deep within the tunnels, the Nali have found an exit and are fleeing with their last remaining crystal.

A deadly mechanical shredder stands between the player and freedom, and he must find a way to deactivate it... but, even then, the way out will be far from obvious...

As Prophet indicated in his review, the key conceit of this map revolves around a mine cart ride that can take many different routes. Each of the levers in the control room shifts a set of points, enabling the cart to take a different path, although only the first three of the five levers really make a difference. The map is also bugged, with death by unintentional crushing an ongoing risk, but I didn't have nearly as many problems as Prophet did in playing this map (which makes me wonder whether Prophet played it in UT?).

The challenges in this map are threefold:
(1) Working out the relationship between the control levers and the different routes the cart can take, and coming to understand that every route eventually leads back to the start of the map;
(2) Finding out that the shredder can be deactivated and working out how to do it; and
(3) Finding the actual exit in the area that lies beyond the shredder.

The first two are not an unreasonable ask - they just require patience and perseverance - but the third feels unnecessary. Although the translator message that provides part of the answer to (2), which also refers to the Nali fleeing with the crystal, does later provide the player with an oblique clue as to the location of (3) (there are Nali and bonfires nearby), the exit itself was in darkness in a very unlikely place. I have to confess at this point that I did use the Editor to find it. But, for beating the principal challenges of the map itself without assistance, I did feel a great sense of accomplishment!



Just one map to go in what has turned out to be a very interesting campaign... it's also been nice to feel a sense of story-driven continuity between these two maps, with the Nali in retreat from what was once their village, and foreshadowing of a "temple" to come (presumably the castle-like environs of map 5).

5. Musica by Zora

The brief flirtation with story is largely abandoned here in the most conceptually abstract map of the pack so far.

Escaping from the mines, the player arrives in a Nali reading room where three doors provide access to chambers that imbue the player with grungy guitar music from the planet Earth. To the soundtrack of this music, the player must then overcome three challenges.

In the first challenge, the player is taken out into a massive open valley with a teleporter floating high in the sky. Four floating chariots await. Under attack by the strange, colourful and translucent flying creatures that populate the valley, the player must find which of the four chariots will take him to the safety of the teleporter.

In the second challenge, the player must explore a sanctuary overrun by Skaarj which he must defeat. Pictures of his travels so far adorn the walls.

In the third challenge, the player must explore a watery labyrinth populated by savage water creatures and Pupae. Deep within the hidden passageways lies a tool that will allow the player to escape the maze.

Once the three challenges are complete, the player is given the freedom to leave. He can depart to a place of his choosing. Will it be the Temple of Chizra, for example, or will he go back in time to repeat his latest journey again?

Musica isn't really a very satisfying conclusion to the pack... previous maps presented stronger concepts, greater challenges and more original puzzles. However, it's still imaginative, and the often close-quarters combat of the second and third parts of the map does present a respectable gameplay challenge. There's no real way to explain away the surrealism here, though, with the presence of the guitar music and in-game links to the bands' web sites, as something that could actually exist in the Unreal world. The guitar music that underpins the map is also its main weakness, becoming repetitive in the extreme after a while.


Overall, I've enjoyed Zora's Episode One. I was slightly dreading it beforehand, knowing that it contained confusing puzzles and bugs and was basic in build, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Not a pack for those whose enjoyment of the game relates solely to its combat, perhaps, this is definitely a pack for those who maybe played and enjoyed some of the classic sideways scrolling platform games back in the early days of PC gaming where completing jumping puzzles and finding hidden switches was often just as important as the fighting.

Overall, I'd say that maps one, two and four (!) were my favourites, and I look forward to exploring Zora's second, third and fourth episodes in due course.

Next up: The last of the thirties on the score sheet, it's The Sky Shard. And maybe, if you're lucky, it'll be the return of the Travelogue screenshots!

The Sky Shard
Site score: 39%


1. The Underground Temple by Edward "EddX" McRobbie

In The Sky Shard, the player is Chris Daniels, one of a small group of explorers who have followed the wake of an alien spacecraft in the hope of making first contact with an intelligent alien species. The trail leads them to the Nali planet, where they touch down next to an ancient temple. When the team's archaeologist ventures into the ruins and fails to return, the player is sent in after him to rescue him.

Setting off into the ruins with a flashlight and a dispersion pistol, it's not long before the player falls down a deep shaft into an ancient well. He has arrived in the Temple of Na-Kasher, where he is dwarfed by the scale of its gloomy and watery antechamber.



The entrance to the Great Hall is guarded by a hulking Behemoth, against which the player is heavily outgunned. Unfortunately, upon defeating the Behemoth, the player finds that the entrance to the Great Hall is sealed. He must explore the dingy passageways and outer chambers of the temple, where Skaarj and Krall lurk in the depths, to find the switch that will unlock the doors.

It's not long before the player finds the body of his missing friend. Now, with no way of going back, the player's only choice is to venture deeper into the temple in the hope of regaining his freedom.



The Great Hall is cavernous and shadowy. Ahead lies the door to the chamber of the mysterious Sky Shard, but it is sealed.



Climbing to the galleries of the Great Hall, the player finds a library, in which he learns some of the secrets of the Sky Shard as perceived by the Nali: it fell from the heavens, leaving a trail of fire and destruction in its wake. It is perfectly reflective, and has strange properties such as the power to make things float. Now it is an object of reverence to the Nali.



It is in a sleeping chamber that the Krall are using as a barracks that the player eventually finds the switch that opens his way to the Chamber of the Sky Shard. Journals among the serried ranks of beds show the Krall reflecting on their servitude to the Skaarj. Life under the Skaarj isn't much fun, it would seem, but the Krall like to be on the winning side.



With his way cleared, the player finally reaches the Sky Shard itself, whose strange properties seem to be causing gravitational anomalies. A perilous airborne fight with two Skaarj frees the player to find out what the Skaarj have been doing here. They are as intrigued by the Sky Shard as the Nali are, it would seem, and have been attempting to analyse it, but with little success so far.



The Nali have speculated that, if the Sky Shard can be made to flare, it will generate enough power to take down the force field barring the exit to the temple. Sure enough, as the player tinkers with the controls of the alien machinery, the shard emits a flare of blue light. The way to the great abyss has now been cleared...


As EddX's first map, The Underground Temple is a pretty primitive affair. Everything is made of basic shapes, the lighting is dull and dreary, and the combat scenarios are not tremendously involving. The backing story also peters out pretty quickly with the discovery of the body of the player's friend. However, the mystery of the Shard itself is just about enough to keep me interested in playing the next map of the saga... will it be explored any further?

Next two maps don't have much to do with the crystal. They're about the abyss and the captured human.